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Are Trump Allies Sabotaging Republicans in Georgia Runoffs?; Trump's Praise of QAnon in GOP Meeting Met with Silence; Echoes of McCarthyism: GOP Senators Didn't "Wait for the Process to Play Out" in 2016; Austin, TX, Mayor Told People to Stay Home as He Vacationed with Family; Couple Arrested after Testing Positive and Flying Home Anyway. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 03, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The president plans to hold a rally in Georgia Saturday on behalf of GOP incumbent Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
But he's been trolling Georgia's Republican governor and Republican secretary of state ever since Biden won Georgia last month.
And if you listen to some Trump allies, they say Republican voters should sit this election out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNEY POWELL, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think I would encourage all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all until your vote is secure.
LIN WOOD, ATTORNEY: They have not earned your vote.
(CHEERING)
WOOD: Don't you give it to them!
(CHEERING)
WOOD: Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election for God's sakes?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Amanda Carpenter is a CNN political commentator and a political columnist with "The Bulwark."
And, yes, Amanda, this is real life. I just wonder if you've ever seen anything like this where you have these allies of Trump actually urging people not to vote. AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is strange. But I
mean, Donald Trump made his name in Republican politics by attacking fellow Republicans. This is an extension of that.
Somehow the Republican establishment leaders who want to keep control of the Senate think they can find a way to navigate Trump's attacks on their own people and still win.
This is the direct conflict that the Republican Party has had with Trump since he burst on the scene.
KEILAR: Do you think that there's any chance that there are Republicans that just don't turn out in the runoff elections, and that actually advantages Democrats, or do you think that may not actually be prominent behavior?
CARPENTER: We'll see. There are people that wanted to press the vote, hard to get people to turnout a special election. Although Republicans have been successful in the past.
But when you have -- it is not just Donald Trump and his fringy supporters. You have had the broader Republican universe impacting the vote mail-in system.
That's been going across on the FOX prime time networks. Yes, a lot of Republicans lost faith in that system.
What's really troubling to me is that you have these Republican officials in Georgia, the Raffensperger, Gabriel Sterling, saying we did it right.
And they're suffering consequences of that in the form of personal attacks from the fringe, in the form of death threats from the president.
Still, even still through, that they're saying go out and support Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, when they're the ones perpetuating this rhetoric, integrity of the system. You can't unravel.
When you have people running for office, David Perdue, Kelly Loeffler, saying the election was rigged against the president, but still turnout and vote for me. You can't square that.
People that go along with it, still facing violent threats of physical violence, saying go out and support them, you guys are in a mess. You can't get your way out of it.
Everyone is held hostage to what Donald Trump will go there on Saturday and say, who knows what.
KEILAR: He will be there Saturday.
I want to get your reaction to something the president said about conspiracy group QAnon.
Sources confirm Trump was in a meeting with Senator Mitch McConnell and other aides about holding on to the Senate and he mentioned Georgia Republican Congresswoman Margery Taylor Greene, a QAnon believer.
And the president praised the group saying it is made up of people that basically believe in good government. That's a comment that was met with complete silence.
What do you say to that?
CARPENTER: I'm not surprised that was met with silence.
COVID and QAnon conspiracy thinking will be Donald Trump's legacy. He has egged all this conspiracy stuff on because he thinks it is good for him.
This is his base. These are people that support him online. A lot of people, not all of them, that turn out in rallies. They are stuck to him like glue.
For as long as Donald Trump is head of the Republican Party, this is what the base likes, what he cultivates, what the party is.
Mitch McConnell can keep staying silent. I think we give him too much credit when he stays silent.
There's a built-in assumption that Republicans are scared of Donald Trump's base. I think it is something different. I actually think they're OK with it. I think they're down with it.
Because when I look at the escalating threats of violence -- this is my bright line, the threats of violence and attacks on the Democratic system.
When you look at something like Charlottesville or the egging on of militia men in Michigan or the fact that people make a hero out of vigilantes in Kenosha, and you don't say anything for this long, I have to think you're supportive of it.
I would love for Mitch McConnell to go to a camera and prove me otherwise.
KEILAR: Amanda, thank you for joining us. Amanda Carpenter, with your wonderful perspective today.
Next, we're going to roll the tape how Republican Senators didn't demand waiting until the electors voted in 2016.
[13:35:07]
Plus, a couple is arrested for knowingly testing positive for coronavirus but hopping on a flight anyway.
What three former presidents are willing to do on live TV to end this pandemic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:40:07]
KEILAR: The president's conspiracy theories about the presidential election, his various baseless claims about he, and not Joe Biden, actually won, have echoes of another dark period in American history, and that's McCarthyism.
Ron Brownstein, in a column on CNN.com, lays out eerie similarities of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist crusade in the '50s and President Trump's anti-election fraud crusade of the present.
In both destructive campaigns, perpetrators were enabled by Senate Republicans. Right now, even as they privately admit Joe Biden is the next president, publicly, they hedge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Would you consider Biden a president-elect at this point?
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IOWA): Well, two weeks from today, he will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But the question here, it's already been answered by voters, by reality. The president has no standing to challenge the results right now.
His own Justice Department says there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud he is alleging.
Republicans, they are not abiding by their own standard for acknowledging the next president of the United States.
And don't take my word for it. Take theirs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you accept the fact that Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States?
SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): Well, we're certainly moving forward as if that's what's going to happen January 20th. But the president wants to see this process play out.
The president-elect technically has to be elected president by the electors. That happens middle of December. And then January 6th.
SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): I think we have more than enough time to reach an orderly resolution using existing legal procedures to ensure that every legal vote counts.
Before we move on to 2022 or 2024, I think we should put 2020 on the books first.
Having spoken -- haven't spoken to the president-elect, had calls from foreign leaders. I expect to speak to him in the coming days, add my voice to the congratulations.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): This is a contested election. The media doesn't decide who becomes president. If they did, you would never have a Republican president forever. So we're discounting them.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNEL (R-KY): Notably, the Constitution gives no role in this process to wealthy media corporations. The projections and commentary of the press do not get veto power over the legal rights of any citizen, including the president of the United States.
I hope you're having as good a day as I am. I want to particularly congratulate President-Elect Trump. We agree this is a stunning election.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): The media does not get to select our president. The American people get to elect our president.
I am excited to work with President-Elect Trump. I had the opportunity to visit with President-Elect Trump yesterday. I visited with Vice President-Elect Mike Pence yesterday. And I offered them my full and unequivocal support. We have a job to do.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): I think we have to pursue recounts, the legality of the recounts.
If Biden wants a legitimate victory, he should be for counting the votes. Let's also check to see if anybody is dead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Senator, have you congratulated President-Elect Biden?
SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): Well, first off, we need to finish all the votes. All of the votes need to be counted.
I spoke to President-Elect Trump yesterday. I'm glad we have Donald Trump as the new president. And I'm looking forward to having a partner in Washington I get to work with.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Senators, did Vice President Biden win the election?
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL): We don't know yet, do we? It hasn't been certified.
SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): The president has every right to use all the appeals of recounts, legal measures that he is using. The election is a lot closer than many people thought.
UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR. The media does not decide who the president of the United States is. The people decide who the president is going to be.
[13:45:05]
Donald Trump is going to have a very successful administration. Donald Trump and his team are going about putting this administration together the right way.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Senator, have you congratulated Vice President Biden yet?
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): No.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Why not?
JOHNSON: Nothing to congratulate him about.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Now, for those in the media that are angry that Republicans won't just take their word for it that Biden won, I think you need some self-awareness. You spent four years claiming the Russians hacked the last election.
The voters have spoken. Now it is time to govern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It is time to govern. That's right. Couldn't be truer for the moment we're in now, the peak of a deadly pandemic, engulfed in a massive recession, flooded by disinformation, almost 3,000 American deaths reported yesterday.
It's a time to govern. Time to make sure Americans will be safe as Trump and Biden swap out.
But instead, Republicans are dragging their heels and making some of the, quite frankly, most inane points yet on why they're doing so, like Indiana Senator Mike Braun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): When you look at how close the election was, basically a tie vote in the popular vote, if you take out the margin of difference in California.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Clearly, Braun is not the Senator from California. Would he be cool with Indiana's votes being disregarded. Not going on a limb to say that's doubtful.
Does he believe that Al Gore shouldn't be president if Florida votes weren't counted? Seems unlikely. As unlikely as Donald Trump winning re-election at this point.
Ahead, another Democratic city leader is caught breaking their own COVID guidelines. This time it is Austin's mayor. Called out for vacationing in Mexico, flying there, while telling others to stay home.
Plus, reporters expose how the coronavirus took over a Tampa Bay nursing home so quickly, killing dozens of people living there. I'm going to talk to one of the reporters of the expose' coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:51:41]
The mayor of Austin is facing backlash for disregarding his own pandemic travel guidance. In November, Mayor Steve Adler posted this message on Facebook:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D-AUSTIN-TX): The thrust of the most important message is trying to get out to the community right now is that our numbers are increasing. And everybody has to be aware of that.
And we need to, you know, stay home, if you can. Do everything you can to try to keep the numbers down. This is not the time to relax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: So here's the problem with that. The mayor was in Mexico when he posted that message. That is according to an article in the "Austin American Statesman."
CNN correspondent, Polo Sandoval, is following this story.
Did the mayor, Polo, give an explanation for his travel?
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here's the thing. The mayor did not -- or at least says he did not violate his recent order in place in early November.
But, Brianna, that's not the point here. Because Even he recognizes it set a bad and quite confusing example.
In fact, yesterday, as Mayor Steve Adler offering his regular Austin- area COVID update on social media. He paused to offer an apology, saying he regrets going through with his travel to Mexico.
He also offered the back story of how it happened. His daughter married in Austin in early November. The wedding scaled down to a few friends and family.
And then after that, that's when an even smaller group of mostly families flew privately to a resort, the Mexican city of Cabo San Lucas.
This was happening, Brianna, when he and other officials were recommending against nonessential travel with the fall COVID surge in full effect.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADLER: I recognize my travel set a bad example. I recognize the fact that I took that trip that at the same time was continuing to urge people to be cautious is confusing.
It was a lapse in judgment. And I want you to know that I apologize. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: Mayor Adler not the only Democratic politician apologizing for not following their own advice.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed attended a party in Napa Valley at a partially enclosed outdoor space recently.
This was just the day before California Governor Gavin Newsom had entered the same restaurant with at least a dozen people from various households. Newsom later addressing his behavior and even apologized for it.
The list goes on, Brianna. Just yesterday, you rolled the tape for viewers, there are multiple Democratic leaders across the country that are now apologizing for not practices what they preach.
KEILAR: Yes. They certainly got caught and now they seem very sorry.
Polo, thank you so much for bringing that to us. Polo Sandoval.
SANDOVAL: Yes.
KEILAR: Tomorrow night, with vaccines nearly available, get your questions answered. Join Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta at 9:00 p.m. for a new coronavirus town hall called "THE VACCINES."
A couple boarded a plane, and apparently they knew they had tested positive for COVID, but they left the airport in handcuffs.
[13:54:36]
Plus, the pandemic is the worst it's ever been. Deaths, cases and hospitalizations all hitting records. Where do we go from here?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: A couple from Hawaii has been arrested for boarding a plane after testing positive for coronavirus.
CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, has the details for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, airlines have said over and over to not fly if you are feeling sick. But police in Hawaii say a couple there took it one step forward.
Hawaii police say, on Sunday, a couple boarded the United Airlines flight after having tested positive for coronavirus and after being instructed to not fly.
Police also say they were flying with a 4-year-old child.
[14:00:59] Police say Wesley Marie and Courtney Peterson boarded a flight from San Francisco to Lihue where they were arrested at the airport and charged with second-degree reckless endangerment.
CNN has not been able to reach the couple.
